1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to telephone ring detection devices and pertains, more particularly to devices for distinguishing between several differently encoded telephone ring signals and enabling disabled telephone devices in response to desired encoded telephone ring signals.
2. Background
In most households occupants share use of a single telephone line. As such, it has become increasingly desirable, in the field of such use, to provide a system by which the occupants may determine for whom an incoming call is intended. In response to this desire, New England Telephone Company offers the "RingMate Service".TM. in which users of a single telephone line may be provided with three different phone numbers. The "RingMate Service".TM. provides a different telephone ring signal for each of the three different phone numbers, all on one telephone line, when an incoming call is received. For example, an incoming call on a first phone number may provide one ring, while an incoming call on a second phone number may provide two rings, and while an incoming on a third phone number may provide three rings. In this way, three different users of a single telephone line may be able to distinguish between incoming calls based upon the number of the rings. It is to be appreciated, that the tone of the rings may alternatively be the distinguishing feature.
There is, however, one drawback associated with the "RingMate Service".TM.. This drawback is the fact that each telephone in a household connected up to the single line will ring for incoming calls on each of the three different phone numbers. Thus, although a particular incoming call may not be intended for a particular person, that person's phone will still ring, and it is up to the people receiving the calls to listen and distinguish between rings. It is desirable for users of this service, and similar services offered by other telephone companies, to be able to select certain telephones to ring in response to incoming calls on one phone number and others to ring in response to incoming calls on other phone numbers.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved service over the prior art "RingMate Service".TM. and other comparable services.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a service which will, in conjunction with the "RingMate Service".TM. or other comparable services, allow users of a single telephone line system to select which telephone devices will respond to which incoming calls.
As used herein, the term "telephone devices" refers to any device which may connect up to the telephone line including, but not limited to, telephones, answering machines, fax machines and computing machines.